


Spectrum

by giraffles



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crossover, Multi, Strong Language, Voltron au, gays in space, get in the fucking lion ed, it's ed what do u want, sentient ships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-08-10 22:17:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7863271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giraffles/pseuds/giraffles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>''When we first came here, we were cold and we were clear.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>No colors on our skin, ‘till we let the spectrum in.''</i>
</p>
<p>When you join the Garrison, the expectation is that some day you’ll get to go to space. See the stars up close. Chart a path across the unknown.</p>
<p>Somehow, none of his classes on astrophysics or engineering prepared him for flying a goddamn alien warship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

      “You crashed the simulator again.”

      “Shut up.” Ed threw the suit at the wall, where it tumbled down and pointedly missed the laundry basket. “How do you always know, anyway?”

      “Your engineer’s brother happens to be  my communications officer, remember?” Al barely looked up from his tablet as he flicked something on it back and forth. It could have been homework. Or it could have been Neko Atsume 3000. “The one you hate.”

      “Fuck that guy.” The memory comes quick; that’s right, that prick with the boy band haircut and who flirted with anything that moved. _Anything_. He was always sucking up to senior officers and generally being insufferable. And a fucking showoff. Fletcher wasn’t half bad, quiet and shy, yet one of the best engineers about. But his brother could go die in a hole for all he cared.

      “That’s the fourth time this week,” Al continued, “What’s up with you lately?”

      “I don’t know.” Ed landed face-first on the bed. “Something is just…”

      “Just?”

      “Just _weird_.” He couldn’t really explain it, because he had no idea why everything lately seemed so off. It was almost like a pressure, like something nagging at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t place it. It wasn’t anxiety, because he knew /that/ one all too well— it was almost more of an urgency, as though something important was going to happen and he needed to find out _what_. He punched the lumpy Garrison issue pillow and grumbled. “Maybe I’m coming down with something.”

 

* * *

 

It happened that night when Ed convinced Al to sneak up with him to the roof of the dorm complex. Even though it was less convincing and more of his brother deciding to come along because, and he could quote, ‘you’re going to get in trouble if I’m not around’. Which was frankly lies and slander, considering he’d managed not to get caught yet. He needed the fresh air anyway— that strange sense of impending doom didn’t want to leave him and he wasn’t about to voice that something felt seriously wrong.

Two familiar figures were already on the roof when they climbed up there. And since both of them where wearing heavy, sound-canceling headphones, it was all too easy to sneak up on them. Ed pulled one side of Sheska’s off in a deft motion.

      “The hell are you doing here?”

The awkward squawk she let out at his sudden voice in her ear was eleven kinds of hilarious. “N-nothing! Nothing at all!”

Her reaction sets off an equal one in Fletcher, even as Al had tried to be a little nicer about making their presence known. He nearly took out a complicated looking dish array in his startled scramble away from them. Ed thinks they both deserve it for being so engrossed in whatever they were doing that anyone could have ambushed them.

      “Y-you nearly gave me a heart attack!” Sheska shrieked at him, and then gathered her laptop into her arms when he tried to get a peak at what she was working on. “What are you doing here?!”

      “I asked you first.” Ed turned to another set up, toying with the antennas coming off of it. “The hell is all this anyway?”

      “A scanner for deep space transmissions,” Fletcher broke in, “We’ve been picking up a lot of weird stuff.”

      “You can’t seriously be picking up things from deep space.”

      “We can _too_ ,” Sheska snapped back, “And when the aliens attack, just remember that I told you so.”

      “Where did you even get all this?” Al becomes the voice of reason, tinged with a little wonder, when he began to examine the mess of wires and electronics. It’s a impressive display, even Ed has to admit that. “This isn’t Garrison tech.”

      “No, I made it.” If it had come from anyone other than Fletcher, one might have called him pretentious, or a smug little bastard. But with the way he beamed was nothing but pure sunshine and honestly, who could ever accuse him of being anything but a sweetheart? “Sheska caught something on the Garrison array a few weeks back, but they wouldn’t let her use it to investigate it. So I made this one.”

      “They said it was just static or a glitch,” Sheska’s eyes narrowed and shifted back and forth, “The bunch of _liars_. They don’t want to admit that someone else is out there!”

      “Aliens,” Ed deadpanned, “You’re sneaking up here to look for aliens.”

      “ _Aliens_.” She waved her arms about. Then grabbed a notebook, flipping through it furiously until she held up a page of doodles of what could have been an intergalactic monster. Or a really bad drawing of a bear. “Things have been going crazy lately, I keep getting one word repeated over and over again— ‘Voltron’, it has to be important! I bet it’s their leader.”

      “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

Before Sheska could continue with any more of her conspiracy stories, the Garrison alarms started to blare, wild and too loud. Grand’s voice came over the speaker system, barking that all cadets were currently grounded and confined to quarters until further notice, and Ed’s first thought is that someone had discovered that they had all snuck out. Which seemed a little extreme before it became very clear that wasn’t the reason at all. His communication’s officer made a strangled sound and latched onto his shoulder, flailing wildly and pointing at the sky.

His own voice caught in his throat at the sight of a ship descending from orbit. Of course he’d seen plenty of ships being launched and returning from missions, glowing red and hot from the friction of the atmosphere. That part is the same. What’s different is the fact that it’s very clearly not a Garrison ship.

      “That’s not one of ours—”

      “No, it’s one of _theirs_!”

And it can’t be happening. Can’t. That’s impossible, or at least highly improbable, though even as he debated with himself the actual odds of a close encounter of the third kind the ship was getting nearer to earth. The Garrison alarms still blared as the strike troops moved out to intercept whatever it was, or more like whoever it was, and he couldn’t form any coherent thoughts past shit shit _shit_ —

      “Come on!” Al grabbed his hand and hauled him back in the direction of the dorm wing. “We’re dead if they find us up here!”

      “We’re dead anyway!” Sheska wailed, though she paused long enough to gather up all the custom tech she could before following them. “Aliens are invading and Voltron is going to kill us all!”

He can’t even say he disagreed with her when the ship finally makes impact, the crack of it slamming into the earth cutting through the other noise. Ed spares one last look back before they all tumble back into the hallways of the Garrison.

It was huge, monstrous, ebony and sick purple in harsh lines, and it would have been totally up his alley aesthetic-wise if the sight of it didn’t set off every fight-or-flight instinct within him. Most of which were defaulting to flight, to g _et out while he still could._

 

* * *

 

They met Russell in the halls, who looked as frantic as they where, though Ed just shoved his brother at him and ran on. It was easy to ignore his angry snarls when they all had about thirty seconds to get their asses back to their rooms or they’d all be expelled— something he was not going to let happen, not after he had worked so hard to get here in the first place. Him and Al at least make sure Sheska gets back to her room safely, even if she’s hysterical the whole time, and he feels a little bad about leaving Winry to deal with that.

By the time they make it back to their own room, mercifully unseen, Ed could barely breath.

      “What the fuck,” Al wheezed, “Was _that?_ ”

      “I have no idea,” He staggered against the wall, trying to will his heart to slow to a reasonable pace while his lungs heaved. “I have no fucking idea.”

Then there’s that _pull_ again, throwing his world into a haze of static and desperation, and it makes him want to bolt out of the room screaming. It doesn’t make any goddamn sense, this foreign compulsion to pack up his things and travel out to the mountains to the east of them. Something kept telling him that was where they would be safest, and the bubbling urgency had returned with a vengeance. He punched the wall with his metal hand.

      “But we’re gonna find out.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DROPS THIS HERE AND RUNS

_And when we come for you, we’ll be dressed up all in blue  
With the ocean in our arms, kiss your eyes and kiss your palms_

 

 

* * *

 

 

      “You can’t be serious.” Al is alarmed, and probably rightly so. “Ed, _think about this—_ ”

      “I can’t just _unsee_ something like that,” His skin itched and that static sensation just wouldn’t go away. And now he had to know, had to get to the bottom of the mystery right at their doorstep. “I’m going back and I’m figuring out what the hell is going on.”

His brother frowned at him but stayed silent as he shoved anything and everything he could think of into a backpack. If he’s going he needs to be prepared, and maybe he can sneak out while all the teachers are distracted. Al sighed.

      “You always get me into trouble.”

      “You don’t have to come—”

      “Don’t be ridiculous.” Al grabbed his coat and pulled it back on. “I’m going wherever you go.”

And he would. Even if it got them both expelled, or worse. He can’t believe they’re about to risk it all for a chance to see fucking aliens. There’s a distinct possibility it’s a terrestrial based, Earth-made ship; some test flight or launch gone wrong. But that’s reaching, reaching further than conspiracy theories about strange signals and outer-solar system missions that have gone down in flames. There was no way that thing was made by human hands.

This is a bad idea. They’re out the door and halfway down the hall anyway.

The alarms had finally silenced, but the emergency lights still blinked, casting the Garrison halls in muted red. All the other cadets must have been following orders because they were the only ones creeping from wall to wall, peeking around corners to watch for superior officers. There was no one. The hallways remained dead silent save for their footsteps and hushed whispers. It was almost worse than the sirens.

And they were close, _so close_ , to the back exit when they heard a group of people running towards them.

Al pulled them both behind some conveniently placed trashcans and recycling bins, though neither of them thought about the fact that Ed’s limbs would collide with metal floors and walls. And the ringing sounds it would make, which echoed in a grating way. So much for stealth. So much for getting out without getting caught. The group of people stopped right before where they were huddled and he knew it was over.

      “You know, if you wanted to hide, you should probably get _in_ the trashcan.”

      “I’m going to beat your fucking face in,” He snarled at Russell, because of course it would be him, standing there and looking self assured, “If you don’t shut the hell up.”

      “Sure you are.” He didn’t sound convinced, and he was damn lucky Ed wanted to get out of there more than he wanted to punch the smirk off his face. But he wasn’t alone, not by a long shot— the others they had hear where his brother, tailed by a nervous Sheska and a determined Winry.

      “What are you doing here?”

      “I was going to ask you the same thing,” came Winry’s quip, “They’ll kick you out for real this time, you know.”

And he knows. Of course he does, he’s not an idiot. The school officials will only put up with so many broken rules, even from one of their best and brightest, and this is a direct order they’re all going against. “You’re here though.”

      “Only to look after all of you.” is her response, and he knows it’s mostly for Sheska. Even though her mechanic’s kit is slung over one shoulder.

      “If we want to find out what’s going on, we should probably get moving.” Fletcher broke in with a troubled look in his eyes. That at least explained why his jerk of a brother was with him. Ed grudgingly had to give him points for that, even when a skeptical glance passed over his features at the mention of an ‘alien craft’. That asshole hadn’t been with them on the roof, he hadn’t seen that thing. And that was the point. They were all going to see it.

When he put it that way, it sounded like a field trip. He could compartmentalize this whole thing as just sneaking out to stargaze or to grab a late night pizza in town. Yes, that was it. Nothing to freak out about. Perfectly rational, reasonable, and totally not dangerous to anyone’s health or safety.

_Wrong_ , said the feeling that started to creep back over him, but he ignored it in favor of making the mad dash out the back bay doors with everyone else.

      “They took all the rovers?”

      “Looks like it.”

And indeed there was not a single vehicle left, save for modest jeeps and a delivery truck. It was too far to walk to the crash site. So obviously they needed to secure a ride.

      “Where did you learn _that?_ ” Is Winry’s accusatory question when him and Al hotwire one of the jeeps, because all the keys are probably in Grand’s office.

      “Summer camp.” Ed replied in his best deadpan voice. And it’s not quite a lie, because a boat engine and a car engine are close enough. There’s a reason they never went back to camp. Al gave her a sheepish smile as a way of apology. It didn’t help.

 

* * *

 

Winry insisted on driving, because it’s an archaic stick shift and she’d seen the way Ed treated cars. He called shotgun. There wasn’t quite enough room in the back for the other four, but they were lucky that Fletcher was small enough to squeeze in with all of them. Seriously, the guy was tiny.

They abandoned the jeep before they got too close, afraid that the engine noise might attract those from the Garrison who were already there. And, no one said, whoever else might be there.

      “Holy _shit_.” Were the first words out of Russell’s mouth at the sight of the ship, and Ed kicked him to shut him up. They might have been far enough away on their bluff overlooking the crash site to not be seen, but the still night air would still let sounds carry easily. Winry gasped, and gave a dreamy sigh. She probably wanted to take it apart piece by piece to see how it all worked. Fletcher had a set of binoculars to pass back and forth. He was pretty sure Sheska would be dead of anxiety before it was her turn to look.

      “Well, we know we weren’t crazy then.” Al’s voice was measured, but he could pick out the undercurrents of uneasiness within it. They shouldn’t be out here.

      “I’m getting closer.”

      “ _Brother—_ ”

But it was too late; Ed was already picking his way down the slope, and he found his footing as quietly as possible. For some reason he knew that ship had the answers. He could feel it. It was danger and fear and everything horrible, and yet in a morbid way that’s how he knew it was the right place to go. Something within him still pulled, it _ached_ , but this was more important at the moment. Rocks and dirt cascaded through his fingers as he scrambled along the desert landscape. Below them the Garrison soldiers and professors had created a perimeter around the alien wreckage, outfitted for war, and they cautiously began to approach it. They’re plasma cutting the hull open by the time all six cadets had crept to a new hiding spot behind a boulder. And that’s when the firing started.

Huge silver humanoids poured from the ship, uniform in design and carrying what could only be described as laser guns. Which would sound comical in any other context, except it was death and destruction in a blazes of purple light, and now things were on fire—

      “ _Run!_ ” He latched onto Al automatically, because it didn't matter what freaky alien shit was going down, he was going to protect him first. That’s what they’ve always done and that’s what he’ll always do. Ed put himself in between his brother and one of the aliens, swinging wildly. He was surprised when his fist connected, and when it scraped in that tell tale metal-on-metal sort of way, leaving a dent and knocking them back. But it only slowed the drone down for a moment before it moved on them once again. So Al tackled it around the middle to knock it down.

There was a lot of screaming, and he couldn't place exactly who or where, as his focus had narrowed down to just staying alive. Staying out of reach of the alien robots with grasping claws and glowing masks that suddenly remind him of old scifi show reruns. Why on earth his brain thinks that's relevant /now/ of all times is a mystery, but the thought is quickly chased away by the realization they're surrounded. There's no way out.

Then as quickly as the fighting had broke out, an outdated hover speeder crashed into the right side of the closing ranks, crushing a few but knocking more prone. He knows he's seen that bike before--

      “Get on!” Comes the command, urgent but firm, from a familiar voice that he hadn't heard in months.

      “ _Rose--?_ ”

      “There's no time!” She had already pulled Sheska aboard, “Come on!”

The reaction is automatic after that. Grab his brother, haul them both up onto the speeder, maybe even help his arch rival too. There’s a lot of cursing and panic and too much going on to make sense of it all, much less the ability to make sense of an ex-Garrison cadet literally dropping in to save them. Then Rose guns the engine and zigzags away to avoid both hostile and friendly fire. Ed still isn't convinced they're going to get out of there alive. He was pretty sure they were all screaming.

 

* * *

 

Rose Thomas is a sort of legend at the Galaxy Garrison— talented pilot, intelligent student, and at the top of the line for groundbreaking missions. At least, she was, once upon a time. For some reason she had jumped ship so to speak, left the ranks suddenly without an explanation. They'd been friends once upon a time, sort of, acquainted enough that he had always wondered what could have happened but not close enough to go find out.

Now she’s living in a run down shack in the middle of the desert, with the walls plastered with handmade maps and torn photographs, newspaper clippings and other documents that look like they’re supposed to be classified. The whole place had seen better days, and held an air of sadness and desperation he wouldn’t have associated with the former rising star.

But it was safe, out of the way and off the grid, and that’s what mattered. No one, neither invader or Garrison, seemed to have followed them; though it hadn’t stopped Rose from throwing a dusty tarp over her hover bike and herding them into the shelter with hushed voices. His nerves were still fraying and raw despite the apparent lull in the action. Somewhere along the way Fletcher had scraped a knee, which left his brother fretting over him incessantly, and the only reason Ed didn’t say anything was because he knew he would have done the same. It was sometimes infuriating how much they had in common while still being on opposite sides of the spectrum— and maybe if Russell didn’t go out of the way to make himself so _insufferable_ , he wouldn’t hate the communications officer so much.

Al nudged his shoulder with his own and gave him a look that asked if he was okay. He shrugged, because they were out of the fire fight, yes, but ‘okay’ was rather subjective at the moment. What was ‘okay’ after that? Where did they go from here?

      “How did you know to find us?” Winry asked the question for him, and while Rose looked calm her face was drawn tight with worry.

      “Not that we’re not grateful,” Al chimed in, “But we, ah, weren’t expecting you?”

Rose gives them a weak smile. “It was a fluke, really. I dove in because it looked like you were in trouble.”

She’s not wrong, per se, even if Ed wants to say that they had the situation under control when they clearly didn’t. It’s a knee-jerk defensive reaction that he’s had to work hard to curb over the years, but it’s never really dissipated completely. Help was never something readily accepted, even from people he would consider trustworthy. If you couldn’t make it with your own strength, then what was the point?

      “What were _you_ doing there?” He came across more accusatory than he meant to, but the words were already spoken, “No one has seen you since last summer.”

She paused at that. It was odd to see her out of uniform, in roughed up black leather and dark jeans instead of crisp Garrison issued clothes. And her eyes looked different too. Darker, heavier, though still framed by bright pink bangs.

      “Coincidence, mostly,” she said, sounding like she didn’t believe that for a moment, “It was hard to miss all of that.”

      “And I’m sure all this info on the Kerberos mission is just a coincidence too,” Russell was already leafing through piles on the table, “Didn’t they say it was pilot error?”

      “It wasn’t pilot error!” Rose snapped, startling them all. Even as class favorite she had never been very into the limelight, staying quiet and passive, for lack of a better word. “At least not entirely.”

      “You’re not saying you seriously believe in that conspiracy theory—”

      “A ship full of alien beings just touched down on our planet,” she countered, “And you’re going to tell me I don’t have the right to investigate the impossible?”

That shut him up.

      “All of that is besides the point!” Sheska wheezed, pawing through her own bag, pulling out papers and notebooks and flinging them about, “We need to find this Voltron thing before they do!”

      “Voltron—?”

      “Sheska, we don’t even know what that /is/, much less where to look.”

      “W-which is exactly why we have to find it!” She stammered, “What if it’s a weapon? What if they get angry and think we’re hiding it? What if—”

      “ _Sheska!_ ”

      “I don’t know what that is,” Rose broke in, “But I have found strange cave paintings deep in the canyons. Here—”

Pinned to the wall beneath yellowing newsprint and scribbled notes are photos of rock walls, etched with carved lines and   faded colors. Geometric figures seemed to be telling some sort of story, though pieces of it were missing, with stylized cats running across landscapes. It gave him the weirdest sense of deja vu.

      “Where is this?”

      “They’re all over the place, but I can’t find them in any history or art book. They don’t match any local culture that’s ever been in the area either. I’m not sure why, but no one seems to know where they came from or what their purpose it.”

      “D’ya think it’s connected?”  

      “I don’t know,” Al admits, “Sheska, can I see your notes?”

She relinquished them reluctantly, allowing his brother to flip through them rapidly, skimming for any pertinent information. For all of her other faults, Sheska could record data impeccably, keeping massive amounts of information organized and and at the ready.

      “Here, get me a piece of paper,” And then Al was scribbling data points out on scrap pieces, connecting the dots, “Doesn’t this look like a Fraunhofer line?”

      “A frow-what?”

      “Frauhofer line. It’s basically the lines made when looking at gas emissions from stars or other celestial bodies. Like from our sun, except this is from the transmissions Sheska has been picking up.”

      “Could it be coming from the thing they’re looking for?”

      “That’s what I’m thinking.”

      “I could build something to find it,” Fletcher piped in, “So we could track the signal and find it first.”

      “I’m not sure that’s a good idea—”

      “Shut up, Russell.”

      “Look, I’m just trying to be reasonable!” And there he went, using his freakish height to try to be intimidating, “We don’t know what we’re going to find out there.”

      “What, are you scared?”

Ed’s insult has the desired reaction, with anger flashing across the fellow cadet’s features. “I’ll show _you_ scared.”

**Author's Note:**

> Gently lays this here for all of you. Hit me up @cariisms on tumblr if you want! More should (hopefully) becoming soon once FMA rarepair week is over. 
> 
> This is so self indulgent and I DON'T EVEN CARE.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Begin Again](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7974490) by [giraffles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/giraffles/pseuds/giraffles)




End file.
